Round 2 Anyone?
Round 2 anyone? The question is definitely on the mind of many as NYC might be asked to deal with round 2 of a taxi strike. Mayor Bloomberg seems to think the city is ready for a second round & even thinks the taxi drivers should know better. He says the city will be ready but feels taxi drivers should know it is in their best financial interest to keep working.
Taxi drivers were expected to have their cars fitted for credit card & GPS units as they brought their cars in for inspection. The inspections started yesterday & will continue through January 31, 2008. Taxi Workers Alliance Executive Director Bhairavi Desai tells the media that their plans will be announced soon.
I say we are guaranteed round 2 of the taxi strike & I think this one might last longer. I also think more drivers might stop working & the consequences will hit pockets of our transit system.
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The MTA has once again updated the rider report card graphic on their homepage. This time 6 new lines are up for grading with those lines being the 2, 3, & all 3 S trains. So straphangers here is your chance to be heard so get your votes in now!
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Wheelchair Accident At Penn Station Plays on Fears….
I spoke with my sister during her lunch break yesterday. She knows how I love to follow anything transit related so she will always ask me if I had heard about any story she comes across. During our conversation, she asked if I had heard about the wheelchair accident at Penn Station. I told her I did not hear or read about it. She provided me with some quick details but my mind was elsewhere so I didn’t grasp what actually happened. I have read an article about it so now I understand what happened.
A 52 year old woman was struck by a train & seriously injured due to the back wheels of her wheelchair being stuck on the yellow platform edge at the 2 & 3 platform at Penn Station. The incident took place on Sunday as she departed a #2 train. When she turned around to see why her wheelchair was stuck, she got hit in the head by one of the train cars pulling away. The force of the blow catapulted her out of wheelchair & straight into a platform column.
New York City Transit officials say they have heard similar accounts from many witnesses although they did say they have “heard other things” as well. Spokeswoman Deidre Parker said “We’re still investigating”. While the investigation continues, the victim is listed in serious condition at Bellevue Hospital with head injuries and fractures to her face and legs.
Disabled Riders Coalition executive director chimed in with some comments about the incident:
“The accident highlighted the fears of straphangers who need wheelchair. I myself on numerous occasions have been hit by a train and just knocked to the side a little bit. Sadly in her case it was much worse.”
This incident has reaffirmed why many disabled riders prefer taking buses. Mr. Harris’ comment states why that is the case; “Wheelchair-using commuters often prefer buses to subways, fearing their wheels may become caught in the gap between trains and platforms or that elevators will be out of service.”
Wheelchair accessibility has always been a huge issue when it came to the subways. Only 61 out of the system’s 468 stations are wheelchair accessible. The agency plans on making 100 key stations accessible by 2020 while also rehabbing more than that by the same deadline. In my opinion the MTA does not do enough for wheelchair commuters. While many have debated that ParaTransit is there for such commuters, anyone who has followed that organization realizes how unreliable they are. They make the MTA’s reliability look off the charts!
Considering the money the MTA wastes or wants to waste on unwarranted projects like platform doors, they could & should do more to improve service for people with disabilities. In my opinion all 468 stations should be wheelchair accessible as that would be the most fair solution. Why should only certain stops get the accessibility. Last time I checked, disability did not have a permanent address!
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Subway Cell Service To Improve Tracking
Today’s edition of the New York Post has an article about the future cell phone service that will be introduced to subway stations. According to the report once the service is installed, 911 operators will be able to pinpoint your location in a station more accurately than if you were on street level.
Senator Chuck Schumer feels “This is something that should have been resolved years ago”. He also went on to say that If your cellphone can be located in the bowels of the subway, there is no reason we can’t do it above ground, too . . . The feds and the cellphone companies need to get this program up and running as soon as possible.”
According to Dianet Communications President Jeff Just, “Subway stations will be equipped with a large number of signal amplifiers, each covering a much tinier area than the far more powerful cell towers above ground”. Here is more of what he had to say:
“Above ground, 911 callers can be located either by global positioning systems installed in the phone or by triangulating the signal from multiple towers. The more powerful the amplifier, the greater the coverage and the less specificity,” Just said. “What we have done in our design is a little atypical – distributing the signal to the small areas covered by each amplifier.” The system will be able to pinpoint where the 911 caller is currently calling from down to the actual platform & which end of it. According to Mr. Just, “The specificity will vary depending on the software each wireless provider is using.”
As previously stated this system sounds like a good idea for our system especially considering how the MTA is reaping huge benefits from it. I can’t wait to have this system in place throughout the entire system. I am curious if low income neighborhoods will be the last to get their stations taken care of. However that topic will probably be addressed in another entry at a later date.
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The Point Is Again?
Not too long ago I read about the MTA’s plans to modify the R62A’s that are on the 7 line. The modification called for the installation of small LED signs that would display “LCL” or “EXP” to answer the infamous question asked at stops along the 7 for years! The problem is what exactly is the point to this again?
The idea that these little signs will lower the number of times the infamous question is asked is idiotic. Most who ask the question either can’t read signs because they are English, are in their own world listening to music, reading a book, etc…. So tell me once again why these signs would be any different from the current ways of telling which train is which? In my opinion the signs & use of the circle & diamond 7 are more than enough to differentiate the two services. Unfortunately many of the 7 riders seem to not be able to grasp simple concepts. One could argue that this is no surprise since many immigrants live along the line with a majority being illegal.
So once again an agency must endure costs because people can’t or understand how to listen or read in English. This is the kind of shit that pisses me off the more I think about it. I’m so sick of immigrants both legal & illegal taking up our valuable space while refusing to grasp our language. The MTA has enough issues to work with especially financially for them to install LED signs for people who refuse to adapt to our native language in our country!
For those interested in pictures you can view them in a couple of threads on Subchat. Here are two threads which contain pictures of the signs in action: Link 1 & Link 2
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